It has become difficult for Russians to remain anonymous when placing advertisements

There are fewer and fewer things in our lives that we can do without unambiguous identification by passport or through “Government Services”. Recently, the sale of “something unnecessary” through classifieds portals was added to this list. Formally, authentication via telephone is still sufficient for this, and in some places even the old-fashioned way, via email. But increasingly, message board administrators present users with a choice: show us a scan of your passport or driver’s license, or they won’t see your ad.

The collective farm, as they say, is a voluntary matter: the user of the portal receives a threatening message that his account has been moved to the “red zone”. By clicking on the link, the subscriber reads: ads from users from the “red zone” will be visible in collections only as a last resort, and they will not be shown on recommendation pages at all.

And here are recommendations on what you need to do to get out of the “darkness”: confirm your account by sending us a scan of your passport, driver’s license or digital identifier of one of the commercial banks. Just everything!

“I received such a message and wondered what to do now,” says Vitaly, a seller of antiques and icons from Yaroslavl. – Although I work under my own name and do not hide, I do not want to leave my full passport details and bank details of a commercial company. If this is needed for security, the state already has all the necessary information: my phone uniquely identifies me, and upon request, law enforcement agencies can easily find me. And no one except the police needs to find me.

“Pessimization” in a selection of advertisements is a serious matter and for professional sellers it practically determines their income. “Several years ago, portals in a unique way educated user-sellers, demonstratively pessimizing free advertisements,” recalls Anna Zhernova, who sells vintage glass in this way. – This happened very suddenly: one day something changed in the settings, and those ads that were published with paid options continue to gain views, and all the others – almost the same in content and design, with tags and everything required – have exactly zero views.”

As the administration of one of the large classifieds portals operating in Russia explained to MK, they need as detailed knowledge as possible about their users to ensure the security of transactions. The aggregator is responsible for selecting ad authors based on the criteria of adequacy and honesty – and screening out potential scammers.

“In guaranteeing the security of transactions, we are interested in the most complete information about sellers,” summed up an employee of the portal’s legal department. Emphasizing that there is no talk of any ban on the publication of advertisements without full identification.

…And indeed, in at least a number of cases, messages about inclusion in the “red zone” were replaced after a few hours by more positive news: the portal administration wrote that the status was changing to “yellow.” But to become “green” you still need to show your passport.

“Here, as they say, the question of personal data of users of ad portals arises right from the start,” comments lawyer Alexey Golubev. – But at least the most popular sites have a very competent legal service, so, most likely, when authenticating with a passport, the user is asked to sign the appropriate consent to the processing of personal data.

Detailed consent to the processing of personal data is indeed contained in the user agreement of at least one of the largest ad aggregators. We are talking about general personal data; biometric and special (for example, health and criminal records) personal data are not processed. It is separately indicated that the servers for processing such data are located in Russia – this is a requirement of current legislation.

However, for many sellers this is not acceptable for various reasons. As interviewed entrepreneurs working using such portals told MK, inconvenience is also caused by the need to call potential buyers using a mobile application (instead of exchanging direct phone numbers). This is why many sellers do not install a mobile application – then calls from clients still arrive on the phone, although the number remains a substitute.

“For some time now I have turned off the call option: let them write messages, and in messages you can exchange phone numbers,” says Vitaly, an icon specialist from Yaroslavl. – It’s simply impossible otherwise. In addition, I try to arrange a personal meeting or shipment in the usual ways, and not through the standard delivery of the portal. But, unfortunately, you can’t refuse it if you don’t work in Moscow: clients demand a simple “buy button.”

It seems that it is precisely this – the convenience of buying and selling anything – that makes classifieds portals masters of the situation and gives them the opportunity to dictate the rules. But we have to realize: this convenience deprives us of independent choice (and at the same time makes our financial affairs even more transparent to the state). It is possible, however, that most of us already agree to this.